General United States District Court Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg handed a strange word to a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania man who pleaded guilty to vote fraud this year.
The Department of Justice ( DOJ) in August charged Huntington Valley resident Philip C. Pulley with election fraud, double voting, and false registration.
The DOJ said Pulley, 62, registered to vote in three areas: Montgomery and Philadelphia districts in Pennsylvania, and Broward County, Florida, using a fake home address and a false Social Security number. In addition to casting ballots in Montgomery and Broward districts, he also cast a vote in Philadelphia County in the 2020 general election. In 2022, he likewise cast ballots in both Montgomery and Philadelphia regions.
Pulley was given three years ‘ supervision, fined$ 9, 500 and a$ 400 special judgment, and Goldberg likewise ordered him to write a letter explaining why he committed the acts. Additionally, he was required to complete 100 hours of community support, with 50 of those days being dedicated to” an organization that works toward the development of free and fair elections.”
The Federalist inquired about the court’s decision to let Pulley pick which “entity” he would assist in and whether it was the court’s choice, and also inquired about the entity’s name. The DOJ did not respond, and that depth is not included in the court documents.
Organizations that are dedicated to free and fair elections exist with all social leanings, not all of whom are created likewise.
For instance, while some organizations support voter ID as a requirement for voting, others especially oppose voter ID laws, calling it racist to require voters to show proof of identity to cast ballots. Which station does the prosecutor want Pulley to spend the rest of his time in?
Another aspect is being guarded by the DOJ. The Federalist inquired with the Court about the party Pulley had registered with when this case first became public in September. That information is not provided in court papers, and it would not say.
The event exposes a weakness in Pennsylvania’s voting dignity guidelines that, in this instance, allowed people to have more than one vote.  ,
If a voter registration applicant does not have a valid driver’s license, they must also provide a valid driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number as per the Help America Vote Act ( HAVA ). But in 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of State ( DOS ) issued , guidance , that removed a safeguard that would have prevented one person from registering multiple times.
The DOS advised counties to refuse voter registrations “based only on a non-match between” the Social Security number or driver’s license number on a membership software and the” assessment collection figures.”
Voters ‘ application data is compared to the government database that matches their Social Security or driver’s license numbers. In the end, voters don’t actually need to prove who they are in order to receive a ballot thanks to the DOS matching directive. The state says counties must send mail-in ballots to requesters, even if their data does not match. And once a voter has one or more ballots in his or her possession, the voter is responsible for submitting just one ballot.
The Federalist’s Beth Brelje is a correspondent for elections. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
